Council Funds OTR Affordable Housing Development

A deal approved by City Council June 25
splits limited funds among two affordable housing projects, funding one
in Over-the-Rhine and leaving the door open for another that’s been in
the works for the last few years in Avondale.

A 100-unit permanent supportive housing
project called Commons of Alaska first proposed in 2008 for Avondale has
received support from the majority of council in the past, including
indications it would get $500,000 in funding toward the facility. But
the project has also been delayed as some in Avondale have protested the
plans by Columbus-based National Church Residences.

As controversy stalled the Avondale
project, Over the Rhine Community Housing put together an unrelated plan
to buy up and rehab affordable housing in the Pendleton District in
eastern Over-the-Rhine. The city administration indicated to OTRCH that
it would be able to use $1.9 million in federal grant money the city
holds to help purchase and restore the properties.

Just one catch — that’s all the grant
money the city has for affordable housing and it’s the same pool of
money that would have gone to NCR for Avondale.

As City Council’s Budget and Finance
Committee met June 23, it looked like a battle was shaping up over the
money.

“Affordable housing and permanent
supportive housing are in our heart, they’re what we do,” said Mary
Burke Rivers, executive director of OTRCH. “It’s a really difficult
position to be in right now, because we support the NCR project.”

Rivers asked the Budget Committee to work
with both developers to figure out a way to do both projects. Vice
Mayor David Mann offered an amendment to give $1.3 million to OTRCH and
hold the other $500,000 or so in grant funds until the NCR project can
be sorted out or until another supportive housing project can be worked
out. The Budget Committee, and subsequently council, passed that deal.

That doesn’t mean the NCR project has a green light, however.

Some resident groups there say Avondale
already has a high concentration of low-income housing, a result of
historic inequalities in city planning going back to the 1960s.

Permanent supportive housing provides
affordable housing and recovery resources for those who would otherwise
be homeless due to addiction problems, mental health issues or
disabilities. The city’s Homeless to Homes program calls for supportive
housing like the Commons at Alaska would provide, but currently the city
only has about 15 percent of the units called for in the plan.